June 1 & 15, 2016 Booklist 19 www.booklistonline.com
anniversary of one of New York’s oldest operating cider mills. The book begins with a short
history of the mill, accompanied by evocative
photos of the mill and orchard across the decades. Apple-lovers would be wise to pick up
this cookbook, which features an impressive
breadth and depth of recipes highlighting
this humble fruit. From barbecue sauce and
vinaigrettes to salads and dips and even a
bacon-apple pizza, Brenda and Bill Michaels
faithfully re-create heritage recipes as well as
developing modern inventions. Main dishes
like tractor fest goulash and apple-scented
roast chicken showcase the fruit’s savory side.
And there’s no shortage of apple desserts and
drinks. Expect this book to be dog-eared and
in demand come fall. —Heather Lalley

Meathead: The Science of GreatBarbecue and Grilling.

By Meathead Goldwyn and Greg Blonder.

2016. 512p. illus. HMH, $35 (9780544018464). 641.7.

Barbecue and grilling trigger more adamant
opinionating than any other cooking procedure. Testosterone-fueled backyard chefs
spend hundreds of dollars on grills and smokers to outdo their neighbors. The current big
guy looming over that
Weber kettle is Meathead
Goldwyn, whose intense
devotion to all things
smoky springs from a
rigorously empirical approach that backs up his
opinions with broad and
deep scientific knowledge. Here the chef shares his hard-won
wisdom with anyone who takes grilling seriously and is committed to perfectly cooked
meats, poultry, and fish. Goldwyn fearlessly
but with healthy humor dismisses as inferior such backyard icons as beer-can chicken.
His technique of “reverse searing” may cause
many to rethink their approach to steaks. Although Goldwyn offers some vegetable side
dishes such as grilled asparagus and barbecue’s invariable partner, coleslaw, he aims his
text squarely at the carnivore. This intriguing
and provocative book promises to become an
indispensable standard for any aspiring grill
master. —Mark Knoblauch

Raichlen brings an encyclopedic knowledgeof live-fire cooking to this exhaustive guide onsmoking foods, a follow-up to his televisionseries with the same name. The first chapteris a detailed lesson in the essentials of propersmoking, covering the types of smokers, fuels,techniques, and methods to achieving smokedflavor, plus many tips and handy charts (woodtypes, temperatures). Raichlen, whose cook-books include Planet Barbecue! (2010) and Howto Grill (2001), strikes a conversational tone:he’s a natural teacher and leads off each recipewith a tantalizing story. Several are adaptedfrom chefs he’s visited in restaurants aroundthe country and world—barbecued lamb bellyfrom Brooklyn, beechwood-smoked shrimpfrom Denmark, and even smoked eggs fromIsrael. Project Smoke faithfully handles classicslike smoked ribs, pork shoulder, and salmon,but also gleefully forays into unexpected cat-egories like cheese, desserts, and cocktails.An excellent how-to for those fired up aboutsmoke. —Alison Neumer Lara

The United States of Beer: A RegionalHistory of the All-American Drink.

Those killjoys who forced Prohibition on usearly in the last century were indirectly respon-sible for another unwelcome burden: incometax. According to Huckelbridge’s heavily re-searched history of beer, Congress saw what washappening and in 1916 established an incometax to make up for the coming loss of alcoholrevenue. That’s the sort of I’ll-be-damned de-tail that makes this book so engrossing. Theauthor forges those riveting details into thestory of how beer shaped “the regional histo-ries of this country.” We learn, for example,that the megabreweries of the nineteenthcentury—Anheuser-Busch, Pabst—were mid-western because the heartland offered the hugeopen space these behemoths required. Thebeer barons created sprawling beer gardensthat became among “the first truly Americanmega-amusement parks.” He halts frequentlyto lament the belly wash that American beerbecame after WWII, but rallies for a hope-for-the-future ending. He’s convinced that themicrobreweries are serving up beer like it usedto be: “darker, richer, more character-driven.”Those adjectives apply to this book, too: goodreading, fascinating history. —Don Crinklaw

The Arts

Dialogue: The Art of Verbal Action forPage, Stage, and Screen.

By Robert McKee.

July 2016. 336p. Twelve, $35 (9781455591916). 809.

McKee, a major mentor to Academy Award–
winning writers and lecturer on the art of the
story, uses his decades of critical insight to explain what makes good dialogue. Starting with
very basic textbook-style information about
various kinds of dialogue, McKee moves on
to a more advanced analysis of an entire scene,
complete with turning points, characterization,
conflict, tension, and suspense. He performs
close analysis on well-known examples from
both theater and film, from Julius Caesar to
Frasier to True Detective, dropping in references

“Harger presents bothsides of each debate andincludes a detailed andwell-cited narrative....Although at times anindictment of ALA’sactions and policies,overall this account isan education and call toaction for librarians touphold their principles...engaging and surpris-ingly frank...suitable forall”—Library Journal